The photo and the bracelet
by greeny-blue lights
Summary: Set after Shalom in Season 4. Jenny has flashbacks about the "another lifetime ago". JIBBS! Minor kissing...so I suppose I still might rate it T...to be safe. Oneshot.


**Hello, this is my thrid fan-fic. This is set after Shalom, and I would have really like Gibbs to come back...anyway, just read it. Please review! Thanks to Alex who told me that it is not Siveria, but Serbia! I nearly died of shame! And I am planning to write a sequel...except don't expect it too soon cause I have exams! (curse them!) Anyways...enjoy**

**Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS...I wish I was on it though _sighs_**

Jenny clasped the photo tightly in her hand, as she walked up those stairs to her office. Tears were brimming inside her eyes, threatening to overflow. Serbia was truly a lifetime ago, a lifetime that she missed so dearly. Gibbs had been her leader, her partner. All that time ago...

_An unknown man was in the Director's office, standing behind him. Jenny was silent with apprehension. So this was going to be her leader. The Director moved so that Jenny could clearly see the man. He was reasonably tall, with grey, slightly long hair and misty eyes. Jenny thought he was rather handsome, yet quite...she couldn't describe it._

_"Jennifer Shepard, this will be your new team leader, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs," the Director announced, "And Gibbs will also be your partner." Jenny moved forward and shook Gibbs' hand. He had a firm handshake, which Jenny liked._

_

* * *

__Jenny watched as Gibbs was photographing the body. It had been two years since she had met him. Jethro liked to tell her that she was a quick learner, a great student. Jenny always flushed with pride when she told him._

_Yet after two years, she had begun to appreciate him as another person. He wasn't just her boss, he was her...Jenny did not like to admit it. Yet it was true. Jethro had begun to be attached to her, and she liked him. They would go out to dinner sometimes, watch a movie..._

_"I'm sending you two to Paris, undercover with Special Agent William Decker here," The Director announced, gesturing to William Decker, who was lounging casually on a chair. Decker got up, and shook hands with both Jenny and Jethro. _

_"Decker here will not be directly working with you. Shepard, you and Gibbs will be working together though. If any one of your covers are blown, use the name 'Oshimida'. Got it?" _

_

* * *

__Jenny stopped by the jeweller's window to admire the bracelet. It was beautiful, with two pearls connected with intricate sliver and gold beads and charms. Gibbs put his hand around her._

"_Do you like it, Jen?" Gibbs whispered into her ear._

"_Oh, yes, its exquisite!" she sighed in longing._

"_Well then, I'm getting it for you." Gibbs began to walk to the shop._

"_No...no, don't worry, Jethro. Its...not right for me, and anyway, its __**way **__over our budget," Jenny pulled him back._

"_I don't care how much its worth, I would give anything to you," Gibbs was adamant on buying the bracelet._

"_Well, then, if you would do anything, just don't buy it, Jethro. Come on, let's go to lunch," Jenny pulled Jethro along. Yet he saw Jenny glance back at the bracelet one more time. _

_

* * *

__Jenny now admitted that she was at least a bit in love with Jethro. He made her laugh, made her truly happy. But always a thought was nagging her in the back of her head. She could not love Jethro, he didn't fit into her five year plan that she had created for herself all those years back. She wanted to be successful, be at the top. Yet at that time, she never though of marriage, of a man. Everything but a man. Jenny did not want to change or compromise that plan. She had to abandon Gibbs, some way or another. And it would break her heart on that day _

_

* * *

__The Paris op. had finished, They were returning to D.C. And Jenny knew this was the time she had to speak up. She had spent two years in Paris with Jethro, and she loved him so much. She had even thought of demolishing her five year plan, for the sake of him. But she always told herself, _You are crazy, Jennifer Shepard. You are a successful woman, a woman who can do great things. You would give yourself up for this Jethro guy? You planned to become someone great, maybe even the Director of NCIS! you sound like those women in the movies who ruin their perfect lives after following men. Make something of yourself. Kick Jethro out.

_Yet she had pleaded with this voice, that Jethro wasn't just any man...but a...man. Then, her common sense and conscience took over her.._

* * *

Washington D.C, Gibbs' place

"_I have something to tell you, Jethro," Jenny sat on a chair opposite to Gibbs, sipping bourbon out of her shot glass. Gibbs smiled._

"_I have something to tell my lovely girl as well, Jen," Gibbs teased._

"_You go first," Jen smiled strangely, her heart was thumping furiously._

"_No, you go first Jen."_

"_J...jethro," Jenny faltered, then gathered herself up, "When I first came to NCIS, I had a plan for myself. To be someone, someone great, powerful." Gibbs nodded. He knew Jenny was a high flyer._

"_When I met you, I experienced a new feeling. Love. It shocked me, yet it was a gift I would never forget, even if I would leave it..."_

"_What do you mean, leave it," Gibbs interrupted sharply, picking up on the phrasing._

"_I...I love you Leroy Jethro Gibbs with all my heart, always remember that. But my...you do not fit into my five year plan that I had planned all those years ago," Tears trickled down Jenny's face as she sniffed, "I love you Jethro, I love you, that's all I can say. But I can not do this. I can not commit. Paris, Serbia...everywhere we've been together...I will treasure the times. Especially when we were stuck in the place in Siberia for a week with nothing to do, and your hair grew so long... I will remember it always, no matter what. P...please J...Jethro, l...l...let me g...g...g...go," Jenny's face was hard set, yet tears were trickling one by one down her face. Gibbs sat there, as his glass dropped from his hand, the bourbon splashing over the carpet. He was shocked. Hurt, shocked. He loved her, and was prepared to give up anything and everything to be with her, and she was leaving him because of her stupid five-year plan. Anger welled up inside him. Yet it disappeared as soon as it came._

"_W...where are you going then?" Gibbs managed to stutter._

"_I...I'm going somewhere where I am not with you," Jenny smiled softly, "You'll get over me, don't worry. But I will always love you and remember you, no matter where you or I am." Jenny stood up, kissed a shocked Jethro on the cheek, and silently, with tears flowing down her pallid skin, she walked towards the door. She opened it._

"_**NO! No! No! Jenny, you can't leave me! COME BACK!**__" Jethro knocked the chair as he jumped up, and raced towards the door. He grabbed her, and kissed her. Jenny pulled away, and then pushed him away._

"_No, please, you're making this harder. Please Jethro. If you love me, just let me go," she was so calm, "Goodbye Jethro," was all she said. Jenny shut the door. Gibbs fell to the ground with tears trickling down his lined, hard face, for the first and last time in his life._

Jenny woke up from this flashback, surprised to see herself in the Director's office. It seemed she had just left Jethro in his apartment, where she had hurt him so much that it was not fair. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Jenny switched back to Director mode. The door opened , and Jethro walked in.

"Jethro..."Jenny was shocked, "I though you just left for...Mexico." Gibbs walked up to the desk, and Jenny stood up.

"On the night that you left me, I never told or showed you was I was going to," Jethro murmured. This brought hot tears to Jenny's eyes.

"I have never forgotten it. I was too heartbroken to give it to you, until now," Jethro produced a small, black box from his pocket. Jenny took it gingerly into her hands. She was scared to open it.

"Open it, Jen," Jethro kissed her cheek. She opened the box.

There, in the black, velvety folds lay a bracelet, with two pearls connected with intricate sliver and gold beads and charms. It lay there, still, silent, perfect. The bracelet in the jeweller's shop all those years ago. Jenny gasped.

"Jethro! The bracelet in Paris..." Jenny whispered.

"I thought it was time," and he kissed her quickly on the lips. He then turned around and walked towards the door, leaving Jenny rooted to the spot.

"Goodbye Jen. I love you," and Gibbs walked out, leaving the door wide open.

**Please review! it would make my day. And I don't think that Gibbs actually comes back to see Jenny...anyway, I hope you enjoyed it!**


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